Daily Prayer

Tuesday, 29 September 2015

The format is smaller (19cm tall / 14cm wide), but In the Beginning Was Love: Contemplative Words of Robert Lax is an outstanding and beautifully bound collection of selections from Robert Lax's (1915-2000) poems and journals. They paint a picture of Lax as a poet-mystic; one who is at once wide-eyed and open to Creator and creation, while at the same time acutely aware of the full-range of all that makes us human. The darker realities of being human are not hidden… “Your old self, your new self, your new self, your old self.

Every page is a gift to the contemplative soul. I loved it, and shall return to it often, both as a means of deepening my own seeing, but also as a means of nourishing the wisdom and insight that I hope for in my own altogether human life.

Jonathan Montaldo, editor of The Intimate Merton (with Brother Patrick Hart, O.C.S.O.) writes, in the foreword, that “Lax’s creations, if read in the quiet in which they were composed, will bring the reader into dialogue with a silence that is a powerfully transforming “word” itself. What appears empty is perceived as full, and what is poor is revealed as precious. The mystery of being alive is encountered, if only momentarily, as unobscured.”

Steve Georgiou, a friend of mine, has gifted us something special in bringing together these selections and in introducing the collection so thoughtfully.

Why is Lax relevant? Georgiou says it well: “…Throughout Lax’s writing we hear his perennial plea to “slow down,” “relax,” “simplify,” to consider where we came from, where we are now, and where we are going. He gently urges his readers to trust in the God of love, to go with the flow of love, to forgive and pray, to be attentive to the moment with wisdom and compassion… to make the best life choices, to live authentically, [and] gracefully. The poet-sage reminds us that we were born to be co-creators, nurturers of the cosmos (and of one another), artists of the eternal…[and] peacemakers…”

Lax lived to be 85. He lived life. He loved life. These poems and brief reflections reflect that life. They offer a deep wisdom, a rich insight into what it means to be a human fully alive. I highly recommend this little book.

Wednesday, 23 September 2015

I’m looking forward to slowly reading my copy of Walking on the Pastures of Wonder when it shortly arrives. While O’Donohue can be a dense writer, I’ve always valued his wisdom and insights, and many times I’ve found my soul alighting on a theme or words, or an image conjured up by those words. 52-years of age was too young to die, but we have the gift of many books and audio recordings. Now, we have the gift of Walking on the Pastures of Wonder, which was published by Veritas in March 2015 (148 pages / Hardcover / ISBN13: 9781847305251).

___________

“It has been seven years since the sudden death of John O’Donohue [died 4th January 2008], bestselling author of Anam Cara and Benedictus. Now, in print for the first time, comes Walking on the Pastures of Wonder, a poignant and inspirational collection of radio conversations and presentations, based on John’s radio work with former RTÉ broadcaster and close friend John Quinn.

Collated by John Quinn, the conversations span a number of years and explore such themes as wonder, landscape, the medieval mystic Meister Eckhart, ageing and death.

A book of great insight and riches, presented in John O’Donohue’s inimitable lyrical style, which will do much to feed the ‘unprecedented spiritual hunger’ that he had observed in modern society.

EXTRACT COPYRIGHTED MATERIAL

Introduction

“When John O'Donohue died suddenly in January 2008, he left a deep void in the hearts and minds of many people. For more than a decade prior to his death, his writings, talks and broadcasts had done much to feed the 'unprecedented spiritual hunger' that he had observed in modern society. His books on Celtic spirituality were bestsellers; his broadcasts and talks tapped into the needs of the sizeable audiences that tuned into them.

Over a period of five years I was privileged to work with John on a variety of radio programmes. We climbed Mamean mountain in Connemara for 'This Place Speaks To Me'. We discussed Meister Eckhart as his choice of 'Millennium Mind'. We explored ageing and death for the series 'L Plus'. We spoke about wonder for 'The Open Mind', and John delivered the 1997 Open Mind Guest Lecture on the theme of absence. Our loss of John is tempered by the legacy of these broadcasts and I am indebted to Veritas for making them available in print and to RTE for originally broadcasting them, as well as to John's family - to Pat O'Donohue, John's brother, in particular for his foreword - and literary estate, in particular to Linda Alvarez, for their cooperation in this venture. I have interspersed between the sections some of John's 'Blessings' from his book, Benedictus.

Wonder, imagination and possibility were John's great concerns, and he articulated them in his own inimitable lyrical style. The rich flow of his language cadences, rhythms, colloquial flavouring - were a large part of John's attraction to his radio audience. This poses a dilemma, however, when translating radio programmes into print. Do you edit transcripts heavily — almost re-write them - to accommodate the print medium? Or do you leave them relatively intact, faithful to the original? We have opted for the latter, in the belief that John's words still sing off the page. We hope that you, the reader, will concur. Whatever the medium, there are great riches here — the product of a brilliant mind, a mind that never stopped striving to advance the frontiers of possibility.

~ John Quinn

REVIEW

“THERE WAS a day in January 2008 when suddenly the valleys, streams, rivers, and lakes of Connemara and the Burren lost their colour and blackened, when the silent music of the stones, hills, and mountains abated for just a moment, for at that moment, in far off Italy one of the few men who fully understood their physical and spiritual presence experienced, to quote his own words,

Tuesday, 22 September 2015

I can’t imagine that many readers of this blog haven’t heard of theologian NT. Wright. In some ways we might talk of “NT. Wright overkill” – so many books, so many lectures! But, in other ways many of us will be grateful for Wright and his output.

From there, I went back in time to 1978 when I managed to track down a copy of his brilliant essay The Paul of History and the Apostle of Faith.

Since then I’ve read, or dipped into, every one of his books except Paul and the Faithfulness of God(pub. Nov. 2013) which, given all Wright’s previous work on the Apostle Paul, I couldn’t bring myself to buy. I saw and see it as a technical read, more aimed at the academy. I haven’t seen or read much about it that hasn’t been said by Wright elsewhere.

Wednesday, 16 September 2015

Near my bed I have the word PEACE. Its made of wood, and has beneath it the words Peace Comes from Within. They’vebeen important words to me over the last 4+ years, and in many ways have encapsulated the quest of the last decade of my life…

Richard Rohr recently reflected on exactly this sentiment:

“Paul Knitter has been an activist for peace and justice since the 1980's. He has been inspired by the Engaged Buddhism of the last fifty years. Engaged Buddhism, a term coined by Thich Nhat Hanh, brings insights from Buddhist practice and teaching to social, political, environmental, and economic injustice. In his book Without Buddha I Could Not Be a Christian, Knitter applies the Buddhist approach to Christians who are sincerely working for justice.

Buddhists are much more concerned about waking up to our innate wisdom and compassion (our Buddha-nature) than they are about working for justice. If Christians insist that "if you want peace, work for justice," the Buddhists would counter-insist, "if you want peace, be peace." That's the point Thich Nhat Hanh gently drives home in the little book . . . Being Peace. His message is as simple and straightforward as it is sharp and upsetting: the only way we are going to be able to create peace in the world is if we first create (or better, find) peace in our hearts.

Being peace is an absolute prerequisite for making peace. And by "being peace," . . . [Thich Nhat Hanh] means deepening the practice of mindfulness, both formally in regular meditation as well as throughout the day as we receive every person and every event that enters our lives; through such mindfulness we will, more and more, be able to understand . . . whomever we meet or whatever we feel, and so respond with compassion. Only with the peace that comes with such mindfulness will we be able to respond in a way that brings forth peace for the event or person or feeling we are dealing with.

Monday, 07 September 2015

With Oliver Sacks having recently died, it was great to re-listen to a 2002 conversation with him on The Spirit of Things. Oliver Sacks M.D. (1933-2015) was a physician, a best-selling author, and a professor of neurology at the NYU School of Medicine.

“…Oliver Sacks, world renown neurologist and author, reflects on the spiritual dimensions of his life and work in this 2002 conversation, from The New Believers series. It is being re-broadcast to mark his passing on 30 August 2015…

… Author of many ground breaking books, including Awakenings, The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat and The Island of the Colorblind, Sacks had a unique ability to communicate the intricacies of living with unusual neurological disorders.

Although rejecting dogmatic religion, the Jewish born doctor demonstrated in his life what he believed was the best side of religion its 'super human concern'.

Contains excerpts from the film, Awakenings, and Oliver Sacks reading selections from his books, including the memoir, A Leg to Stand On.”

Sunday, 06 September 2015

Nick Cave's 2014 tour of North America with The Bad Seeds. The account of this 22-city journey began life scribbled on airline sick bags and grew into a restless full-length epic, seeking out the roots of inspiration, love and meaning.

The new book – The Sick Bag Song - by Nick Cave is an exploration of love, inspiration and memory shaped around the events of Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds 2014 tour of North America. It "blends poetry, lyrics, memories, musings, flights of fancy, fantasy, autobiography, and journal entries."

More on the book here (The Guardian), here (The New York Times) and here (The Australian).